Houdini Hopes...

My son has recently been exploring the world of card magic.
"Pick a card, mom, any card!" he'll say with a sparse worn out deck of mixed blue and red bicycle cards in his hand and a suave stage smile. I grab the one that's sticking out the furthest and relief comes over his face and his smile widens.
"Now look at it and put it back on top."
I look. It's the 3 of clubs. I put it back as instructed.
He attempts a false shuffle which, if done correctly, would land my card back on top. Instead, he jumbles them up into one big some-cards-are-face-up mess. He grimaces slightly and glances at me.
I am staring at him in amazed wonderment. He smiles again and slaps the deck twice, closes his eyes and flips the top card over.
"Is this your card?" He's holding his breath.
"Oh. My. Gosh. HOW did you do that?" His eyes widen at his own amazingness and he himself has to look at the card.
"I can't tell you," he says matter-of-factly, "it's magic."
It was the 5 of diamonds.

The last few attempts at things mystical has been his experiments with hypnosis and mind-control, Julia being his main subject of experiment.
While doing their chores the other day, which consisted of hanging their clean clothes up that were on my bedroom floor, I overhear Garrett gently saying to Julia, "Empty your mind. Empty your mind."
Julia, not as amused with his attempts to wipe her mind clean again says, "It's already empty, Garrett."
Garrett sighs heavily. "Juuliaaa...", he whines.
"Oh , alright." she says and she lays down on the floor and begins to chant while passing her hands slowly across her forehead.
"Empty my mind. Empty my mind. Empty my..."
"Hey, Julia!" Garrett interrupts her.
She sits up.
Garrett leans in and whispers, "Why don't we try to get mom to empty her mind so she'll let us watch TV all day!"
Enter mom, stage left, to break up the fiendish plan and let her little Houdini children know that moms have all power over mind-control and that attempts to hypnotize a female parental figure are indefinitely futile.
However, the male parental figure is completely intolerant when it comes to mind-control. Their bodies are especially influenced by it during the later evening hours.
Just ask them anything as long as they have a certain hand held controller and are staring blank-faced at a TV screen. They'll give you anything you want.